Privacy policy
Last updated November 2, 2026
This explains what Fariin stores, what it cannot read, which permissions it asks your phone for, who else touches your data, and how to get rid of all of it.
The short version
The contents of your one to one messages and calls are encrypted so that only you and the person you are talking to can read or hear them. We cannot. Groups, channels, stories and group calls work differently, and we say exactly how below. What we hold is the small amount of information needed to run an account and deliver a message: who you are, which devices you use, and when something was sent.
We have never sold data about you and we will not. There are no ads in Fariin, no advertising companies in it, and nothing in this policy permits anyone to buy access to you.
Permissions the app asks for
iOS asks before Fariin can touch any of these, and you can say no to every one of them. Saying no switches off the feature that needs it and nothing else. You can change your mind later in the iPhone Settings app under Fariin.
| Permission | Asked when | What it is used for |
|---|---|---|
| Photos | The first time you attach a picture or make a story | Showing your recent photos inside the app so you can pick one. This happens on your phone. Only the photos and videos you send leave it. |
| Save to photos | The first time you save a picture from a chat | Writing that one picture to your camera roll. |
| Camera | The first time you take a photo in a chat or start a video call | Taking the photo, and your video during a call. |
| Microphone | The first time you record a voice message or start a call | Recording that message, and your voice during a call. |
| Location | Only if you send a location in a chat or add a place to a story | Reading your position so it can go in that message, and listing places near you. To list nearby places your position is sent to Apple Maps. Fariin does not track you in the background and does not ask for always-on location. |
| Face ID | Only if you turn on the app lock | Unlocking the app. The check happens on your phone and Fariin never receives your face data. |
| Notifications | When you first sign in | Waking your phone for a message or an incoming call. |
Fariin never asks for your contacts. Your address book is not read and not uploaded.
What we store
Your account
A username, a display name, and the email address you signed up with. If you add them: a profile photo, a bio and links. We also store what the account needs to work: your password or passkeys in protected form, a scrambled copy of your Chat Key, your last seen and online status, the people you blocked or hid, the channels you follow, and any call links you made.
If you sign in with Apple or Google, they confirm who you are and send us the email address on that account, or the private relay address Apple gives you if you chose to hide yours. We never see your Apple or Google password.
Your profile photo and display name are not end to end encrypted. They have to be readable by people allowed to see your profile, so treat them as visible to anyone you chat with.
Messages and media
Message text is encrypted on your phone before it leaves and decrypted on the recipient's phone. We store the encrypted result so it can be delivered, plus what is needed to deliver it and show it: who sent it, who it is for, when, what kind of message it is (text, photo, voice and so on), reactions, and whether it was read. Photos, video, voice notes and files are encrypted the same way. If you turn on disappearing messages, the message is removed when the timer runs out.
When you send a link, your phone fetches the page to make a preview, so that website sees your IP address. We also count how many messages each account sends per day, for 30 days, to spot spam.
Group chats
Messages, photos and files in a group are not end to end encrypted. They are encrypted on the way to our servers and stored encrypted by our cloud provider, but our systems hold the key, so they can be read on our side. This is what lets people preview a public group before they join. Treat anything you post in a group as readable by its members and, if we need to look into a report, by us.
If a group is deleted, we keep it for 180 days so it can be restored if the deletion was a mistake, then erase it.
Channels
Channels work like groups: posts, photos, reactions and poll votes are not end to end encrypted and are stored readable on our side. A public channel can be read by anyone. We keep a list of who follows a channel, and the channel's admins can see counts such as followers, views and reactions.
Calls
A call between two people is encrypted between the two phones. Between people who already chat, the call often connects directly, and then each phone can see the other's IP address. Calls with someone you have not chatted with are always relayed, and you can turn on Always Relay Calls in Settings to relay every call. When a call is relayed, the encrypted audio and video pass through a server, which passes it on and cannot open it. Setting up any call also briefly shows your IP address to a Google connection server.
Group calls, calls joined from a call link, and a one to one call that someone adds a third person to are not end to end encrypted yet. Their audio and video go through LiveKit's servers, encrypted on the way there and on the way back, and those servers handle the call in order to pass it to everyone in it. We are working on end to end encryption for these calls and will update this page when it ships.
For every call we keep a record that it took place, between whom, how long it lasted, and technical timing about how it connected.
Stories
Stories are not end to end encrypted. They are visible to the people you choose for the time you pick, from 6 to 48 hours (24 by default), then deleted. We record who viewed it so you can see that list, and it goes with the story.
Your Insights keep counts of views and reactions for each story, with a blurred thumbnail, and counts of profile views, for up to 400 days. Only you see your own Insights.
Devices and sign ins
A notification token for your phone, so it can be woken. Fariin works on one phone at a time: signing in on a new phone signs the old one out. We keep a short record of your device. If you turn on Sign-in alerts (Settings › Account › Security notifications), we email you when a new device signs in. That email includes the time, the device type and the IP address the sign in came from. We also email you when your password changes. We read the IP from the connection itself rather than from anything the app claims, so a modified client cannot fake it.
The Devices list in Settings also shows an approximate location for each device, such as a city and country. We work it out from the IP address of the connection when the app opens, and we store only the place name on your own device record, not the IP address. It can be wrong, often naming the nearest large city or your network provider's city. It does not use your phone's location and needs no location permission. Only you can see your device's city, and it is removed with the device record when that device signs out. Your country may be counted, without your name, in the country breakdown that other people see in the Insights for their stories.
Crash and error reports
When the app crashes or something fails, it sends us a short report so we can fix it: what went wrong, the app version, the iPhone model and iOS version. Crash reports go through Google Firebase Crashlytics. They never contain your name, username, email, phone number or anything you wrote. We keep them for up to 90 days.
The app also keeps a short technical log of connections, calls and sending problems. After a video call, or when something gets stuck, it uploads that log to your account so we can find the cause. The app also sends us simple usage and error counts, which we keep for 30 days. None of this contains message content. These logs are linked to your account and are deleted with it.
What we never collect
- Your contacts or address book.
- Your phone's location, unless you send one in a message or add a place to a story. The approximate city shown in Devices comes from the network connection, as described above.
- Advertising identifiers. There are no ads and no ad networks in the app.
- Any profile of you built to sell, target or score you.
- The contents of your one to one messages and calls, which we cannot read. Group chats, channels, stories and group calls are different, as described above.
Why we are allowed to hold it
Under UK and EU data protection law every piece of processing needs a lawful basis. Ours:
| What | Lawful basis |
|---|---|
| Your account, and delivering your messages and calls | Performance of a contract. You asked us to run a messenger for you and this is the minimum needed to do it. |
| Notification tokens | Performance of a contract. Without them your phone cannot ring. |
| Crash reports, technical logs and usage counts | Legitimate interests, specifically keeping the app working. They carry no message content. |
| Insights and spam counts | Legitimate interests, specifically showing you how your stories do and keeping the service free of spam. |
| New device emails and abuse handling | Legitimate interests, specifically keeping accounts secure and the service usable. You can object, see your rights below. |
| Camera, photos, microphone, location, Face ID | Consent, given through the iOS permission prompt, withdrawable at any time in Settings. |
| Keeping records where the law requires it | Legal obligation. |
Companies that process data for us
Fariin does not own server hardware. These are the services it runs on and what each one touches. Each is bound by a contract that permits them to act only on our instructions and forbids using your data for their own purposes.
| Service | What it handles |
|---|---|
| Google Firebase | Accounts, the message database, file storage, notifications and crash reports. One to one message contents arrive already encrypted. Group, channel and story content does not. |
| Apple Push Notification service | Waking your iPhone for a message or an incoming call. A notification carries the sender's name and photo. For a group it carries the message text. For a one to one chat the text stays encrypted and is opened on your phone. |
| Cloudflare | Relaying calls that cannot connect directly, serving this website, and a spam check on the contact and report forms. |
| Metered | A backup call relay, used when Cloudflare's relay cannot be reached. Like the main relay, it passes encrypted call audio and video on and cannot open it. |
| LiveKit | Group calls, calls joined from a call link, and one to one calls that grow to three people or more. It receives the audio and video of those calls in order to pass them to everyone in the call. They are not end to end encrypted yet, see Calls above. |
| Apple Maps | Listing places near you when you send a location or add a place to a story. |
| Expo | Notifications for some older versions of the app. It receives the same notification content described above. |
| Resend | Sending the account emails described above. |
| Giphy | GIF search. What you type into GIF search is sent to Giphy. |
Nobody else receives your data. We do not sell it, rent it, trade it, or hand it to advertisers or data brokers. If we are ever served a valid legal order we will comply with it, and what we can hand over is limited to what we hold, which does not include the contents of your one to one messages or calls.
Where your data is held, and transfers
The message database and our servers run in Google's Middle East region. Photos, videos and other files are stored in Google's United States region, and some sign in checks also run in the United States. Account emails are processed in Ireland. Call relays run on servers near whoever is calling, including Mogadishu, Djibouti and Nairobi.
That means data about people in the UK or the EU can leave those regions. Where it does, the transfer relies on the UK and EU Standard Contractual Clauses in our agreements with the providers above, or on an adequacy decision where one covers the country in question.
How long we keep things
- Messages stay until you or the other person deletes them, or a disappearing timer removes them.
- Stories are deleted when their time is up, 6 to 48 hours after you post them. Their view lists go with them.
- Insights counts are kept for up to 400 days.
- Usage counts and spam counts are kept for 30 days. Crash reports for up to 90 days.
- Deleted groups and channels are kept for 180 days, then erased.
- Device and notification records are kept while that device is signed in, and removed when it signs out.
- Our database has backups for recovery. Deleted data can stay in a backup for a short time after it is gone from the live system.
- Everything else tied to your account goes when your account does, subject to the thirty days below and the exceptions listed there.
How it is protected
- One to one messages and calls are encrypted end to end. The key that opens them exists only on the two phones involved.
- Group chats, channels, stories and group calls are encrypted on the way and where they are stored, but not end to end. See the sections above.
- Everything in transit is encrypted in the usual way as well, so the encrypted payload is itself carried over an encrypted connection.
- Access to the servers is limited to the two people who run Fariin, protected by two factor authentication.
- Database rules are written so that one account cannot read another's data even if the app is modified. The server enforces this rather than trusting the app.
No system is beyond breaking, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. What end to end encryption buys you is that a breach of our servers still does not expose what you said in a one to one chat or call.
If something goes wrong
If there is a breach that puts your data at risk, we will report it to the relevant supervisory authority within 72 hours of becoming aware of it, as the law requires, and tell you directly and without delay if the risk to you is high. We will say what happened, what was affected, and what to do about it. We will not quietly sit on it.
Deleting your account
You can delete your account from inside the app. We email you, then wait thirty days before erasing anything, so a deletion made in anger or by accident can be undone. Signing back in during those thirty days cancels it. If you would rather not wait, the restore screen has Delete It Now, which erases the account straight away.
When the account is erased we delete your stories and their media, your profile photo, your account record, your technical logs, and your sign in credentials. Messages you already sent stay with the people you sent them to, the way a letter you posted stays with whoever received it. In one to one chats they stay encrypted on our servers until the other person deletes the chat. In groups and channels they stay readable to members, shown as sent by Deleted Account. Records of calls you were in, and reports you made, are kept.
Your rights
If you are in the UK or the EU, the law gives you all of the following. In practice we honour them for everyone, wherever you live.
- Access. Ask what we hold about you and get a copy.
- Portability. Get that copy in a form you can take elsewhere.
- Correction. Have anything wrong put right.
- Deletion. Have it erased. The app does this itself.
- Restriction. Ask us to hold it but stop using it while a dispute is sorted out.
- Objection. Object to anything we do on the basis of legitimate interests.
- Withdrawing consent. Turn off any permission in iOS Settings at any time. It takes effect immediately and does not undo what was already done lawfully.
Use the contact form and we will answer within thirty days. There is no charge. If you are not satisfied with our answer you can complain to your national data protection authority, which in the UK is the Information Commissioner's Office.
Children
Fariin is not intended for anyone under 16. We do not knowingly hold data about them. If we learn an account belongs to someone under 16 we delete it. If you believe that has happened, tell us through the contact form.
This website
fariin.com runs no analytics and carries no ad trackers. Nothing here follows you. Pages load fonts from Google, and the contact and report forms use a Cloudflare check against spam, so both can see your IP address. When you send the contact or report form we keep your message, the email address you give, and a scrambled form of your IP address, so we can answer you and stop abuse. Our host keeps standard server logs, including IP addresses, for a short period to serve pages and absorb attacks.
Automated decisions
Nothing about your account is decided by an automated system, and there is no profiling.
Who is responsible for your data
Fariin is run by a small team based in the United States, not yet a registered company. That team is the data controller for the purposes of the UK and EU rules and can be reached through the contact form. If a postal address is needed for a formal request, ask and it will be provided. If Fariin becomes a registered company this page will name it.
Changes to this policy
If this changes in a way that affects you, we will tell you in the app before it takes effect, not afterwards. The date at the top always reflects the version you are reading.
Contact
Use the contact form. To report abuse, use the report option inside the app or report someone here.